Gavin Jackson
Film 314
American Idol Take Home Midterm

American Idol (John Pritchett, Bruce Gowers, Nigel Lythgoe, Ken Warwick, and Gregg Gelfland, June 11, 2002, United States) is a reality show where regular people compete in a singing contest. There are three judges who pass people on to the next round, until it gets down to 12 singers. At that point, it becomes interactive, as viewers call in to vote for which contestant they want to stay on the show. The singers also do group performances from time to time, usually to advertise for Coca-Cola or Ford. Nigel Lythgoe produces the program, which began in Britain as Pop Idol. NewsCorp distributes the huge show, which is broadcast in over 100 countries. Some countries get tape delayed broadcasts of American Idol, while others, like Bulgaria, have their own franchise version of Idol. The franchise is eight years old.

American Idol is an example of media homogenization because it allows for little deviance between versions, even though the countries it is being produced in are culturally far apart. As Kean and Moran write, “franchising is…a strategy that is increasingly adopted by television producers who are looking to sell concepts, as well as programs, across national borders.” (1) American Idol uses local talent (free actors), just as any quiz show or reality show does in the countries it is produced. The production companies are also localized. The intellectual content, however, stems from the original British and American versions, and does not change. Instead of going to Hollywood, participants may be voted on to “Planet One” in West Africa Idol, but the format is still exactly the same. It does not allow for development of local concepts or local artists, or for an equal exchange in culture between the first world markets and the third world.

American Idol uses voting off and interactivity to engage viewers; instituting “innovations that have added value to the television’s bottom line at a time when conventional finished production genres are losing audience support because of strong competition from personalized media technologies.” (1) These engines were still fairly new in 2002, when Idol premiered in the United States. It gave viewers a sense of involvement and control, which really upped the dramatic quality of the show while producing less actual content. The show airs twice weekly, and one show has singing while the other only exists to read off the results. The voting for contestants is not the only reason for its popularity, especially in smaller markets than the super-A United States. Anyone can try out for the show; making it truly, on the surface, a democratized process on a capitalist show. However, if anyone has tried out for American Idol, he/she knows that producers make decisions based on a contestant’s appeal, which includes a lot more than a person’s singing voice.
The gladiatorial element is also pervasive, especially in American Idol. Here’s the producer, Nigel Lythgowe, discussing an upcoming season of Idol with an interviewer:

the Hollywood week includes that wonderful time, one of my favorite parts of the series, where we put them in the little vocal groups and they have to rehearse all night. They are absolutely exhausted, and the tension between them is enormous, and we have got the frayed... nerves going on. And this year they were foul-mouthed with each other. I mean, thank god there weren’t any sharp instruments. (3)

This is a wonderful insight into the mind of a reality show producer. Provide contestants with room and board, and then push them to the brink of exhaustion, and you will be provided with tons of television-worthy drama.

From what I could tell from the clips that I watched, I could say that American Idol is definitely not afraid to do a lot of flag waving and such, but usually it’s just for a Ford advertisement. The focus of the patriotism is usually vague; sometimes there’s a segment about someone in the military, but overall, the strength of American Idol is its insistence in injecting fresh faces into the national celebrity dialog. The selection of the contestants is based on the producers’ wish to appeal to many niche markets, as well as mass genre markets of rock, country, and pop.
The clips of Bulgarian Idol and West African Idol did not contain a huge amount of national identity distinction. West African Idol definitely wants to appeal to a more fragmented political landscape, where there are a lot of small countries and a few big ones in the region. I have heard that Latin Idol has a similar pan-nation appeal.

“The historically minded observe that capitalism…has always had worldwide ambitions with respect to market…so, on this view, globalization is merely an advanced stage of capitalism.” (2) Bulgarian Idol and West Africa Idol can be seen more of an attempt at joining in the global economy than promoting local talent. With the same format and licensing agreements, the shows do not contribute a whole lot of new elements into the Idol conversation. Admittedly, I did not watch a whole season of either show, but the clips do not suggest an even transfer of ideas. All of the contestants perform songs made by artists in the United States, even though West Africa has great talents like Feli and Fema Kuti. This does make for an interesting interpertation of American songs at times, such as the Bulgarian Idol clip of a girl singing her version of Mariah Carey’s song “How Can I Live Without You.” Her version is titled “Ken Lee,” based on her misunderstanding of English.
In American Idol, it is interesting to see the contestants split between the genuine and people who want to help their careers. In the two third world countries I’m using as comparison, producers and judges go out of their way to discuss a contestant’s star potential, and contestants do not always come in ready for TV. There are bad singers in every Idol, but the West African clips seem to contain a lot of people that are not used to cameras.


I believe that American Idol gives people something to talk about, and the fact that it makes contestants sing different “styles” of songs makes the appearance that they are celebrating all the disparate musical elements that make up America. However, all the songs they sing are more pop translations of the original, cut down to less than two minutes and mixed to feature the contestant. The audience participation also gives people a lot to talk about, but the contestants they vote for were pre-selected by television producers, not some petition or grass-roots campaign.
The pan country appeal of something like West African Idol may bring nations and ethnic groups together to watch the same show, but only because they leave out all mention of religion and politics. Also, the show is conducted in English, which has the propensity to leave people who do not have a channel broadcasting by them with French or other subtitles out of the loop.

1.
Michael Keane and Albert Moran, “Television‘s New Engines,” Television and New Media. (Sage Publications, 2008) 155-156.

2.
Carroll, Noel. “Art and Globalization: Then and Now.” Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism. 65.1 (2007): 131.

3.
Martin, Logan, “‘It's Going to be a Very Strong Season, I Think’: An Interview with American Idol Producer Nigel Lythgoe,” Reality News Online. 1/17/2006.
http://www.realitynewsonline.com/cgi-bin/ae.pl?mode=1&article=article9455.art&page=1

My 3 clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RgL2MKfWTo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92X__fTe660

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP8dA422uDU